Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545191
LOCAL706.ORG • 31 S T R A N G E D A Y S A N D STRANGER THINGS How did you both get involved with Stranger Things? Mike Mekash: We were with Barrie and Sarah Gower at a party, and they asked if I would be interested in helping him out on a show. I was really overwhelmed that Barrie would even ask me. At that point, I was honored just by the gesture, even if it never happened. Maybe a year later, I got a call saying, "Hey, we need you to come out to Georgia. Can you dedicate yourself to these dates, which are very sporadic and spread out over months?" I just said, "Yes!" There are a few people I will work for that I don't ask details; it doesn't matter what the job is, it doesn't matter what the pay is, I just know it's going to be something cool. That marked the beginning of Season 4, and working with Barrie and Duncan Jarman on Vecna. A N I N T E R V I E W W I T H E R Y N K R U E G E R M E K A S H , D E P A R T M E N T H E A D M A K E - U P A N D M I K E M E K A S H , C O - D E P A R T M E N T H E A D O F P R O S T H E T I C S Jamie Campbell Bower as Henry Creel Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield and Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler Eryn Krueger Mekash: As such a huge fan of the show, I told Mike that if I was ever going to do super-intense episodic television again, I would want it to be a show like Stranger Things—it gets everything right. The 1980s have never looked this accurate across the board: hair, make-up, costumes, props, and sets. Much to my surprise, a few months later, I got a call to be a department head on Season 5 of this very show. It took me a few weeks to wrap my head around moving to Atlanta for 13 months, but I talked to Barrie and Sarah Gower, who both said, "Do it!" They also told me they were going to ask Mike to be the Co-Department Head of Prosthetics, which made the decision easier. We were going to load up our camper with our cats and drive across country. Little did we know, it would be another six months because of the SAG and WGA strikes.